Indian Army wins scout masters competition

The Indian team comprehensively won the 5th International Army Scout Masters Competition held at Jaisalmer Military Station in Rajasthan.

It was the first time when the Indian Army took part in the competition.

Eight teams from Armenia, Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, India, Russia, Sudan and Uzbekistan participated in the five-stage competition, from August 6 to 14.

The closing ceremony of the competition will be held on Friday, which is scheduled to be attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat and other senior officials.

The Indian team trained hard for the past 10 months in extreme weather conditions of the Thar.

The indian team was selected and trained under the aegis of the Southern Command, defence spokesperson Col Sombit Ghosh said.

The five stages of the competition were infiltration and ambush, scoutspecialist course,scouttrail obstacle course, small arms firing, floatation and exfiltration.

He said a world-class infrastructure was created at Jaisalmer Military Station to conduct the prestigious event, which included a challenging obstacle course for the infantry combat vehicles spread over 6.7 km with 15 obstacles and another tough obstacle course for the scout masters teams with 22 obstacles over 1.3 km.